Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania Viewers Divided Over Whether M.O.D.O.K. Is Great or Ridiculous

Spoilers ahead for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania!

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is officially in theaters and one of the most divisive parts of the latest MCU film appears to be the live-action version of M.O.D.O.K., as moviegoers can’t seem to agree on whether the villain is brilliant or ridiculous.

In the film, we find out that M.O.D.O.K. is actually Ant-Man’s Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), the antagonist from the original film who we find out was sent to the Quantum Realm and was reborn as M.O.D.O.K. and now serves Kang the Conqueror. In the comics, M.O.D.O.K. was once George Tarleton, an A.I.M. scientist who underwent experiments that made his brain huge. He was incredibly smart because of his big brain, but he was also very, very violent.

In the film, Cross’ uneven shrinking into the Quantum Realm led to his large head and smaller arms and legs, and he was then built anew to become M.O.D.O.K., which is an acronym for Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing.

Let’s face it, M.O.D.O.K. was always going to look ridiculous as he is a ridiculous but wonderful character. However, there are those online who just think his appearance is much worse than it could have been, including @Spiders_Might, who didn’t like M.O.D.O.K. because they claim Marvel just CGI’d a “dude’s face and head on Modok’s body and called it a day.”

“Do you hate it because he looks ugly?”

Nah I hate it because it’s the opposite, I expected the MCU to give him the ugliest face imaginable, but instead they just cgi a dude’s face and head on MODOK’s body and called it a day

In a way, he’s ugly……but in a bad way pic.twitter.com/GHrakW3psd

— Spider Kaiju (@Spiders_Might) February 15, 2023

@TheyCallMePherf understands that M.O.D.O.K. is supposed to look “silly,” but they believe the movie version just looked like “something out of a JibJab video.”

I was really excited to see #MODOK appear in the MCU, but this honestly looks too silly.
Sure, he’s always looked silly, but he still looked grotesque enough to be intimidating.
The movie’s version just looks like something out of a JibJab video.#AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania pic.twitter.com/86JrSSZY7V

— Pherf the Clown (@TheyCallMePherf) February 16, 2023

@ZoeRoseBryant pointed out that M.O.D.O.K. looks surprisingly familiar to Mr. Electric from The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. For bonus points to this theory, the costumes for the heroes are also not that different.

Marvel: “Can I copy your homework?”

Robert Rodriguez: “Sure, just change it up a bit so it isn’t obvious.”

Marvel: “Ok.” pic.twitter.com/DAPZHHnZmo

— Zoë Rose Bryant (@ZoeRoseBryant) February 17, 2023

Not everyone hated M.O.D.O.K.’s design, as @RICHARDLNEWBY used a very appropriate Ant-Man gif to stress the love they had for the character despite their ugliness.

Me every time MODOK showed his face. #AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania pic.twitter.com/eMKTEXbed4

— Richard Newby – Vote Blue and Save Yourselves (@RICHARDLNEWBY) February 17, 2023

In perhaps the greatest defense for this M.O.D.O.K., Marvel’s Jordan Blum, who has writen M.O.D.O.K. comics and was the co-creator on Hulu’s M.O.D.O.K. series, says screenwriter Jeff Loveness and the team “absolutley nailed the big headed one in all his petulant glory.”

As someone who has probably written the most MODOK next to, I dunno, Stan Lee or Mark Gruenwald, I gotta say @JeffLoveness absolutely nailed the big headed one in all his petulant glory. Dug the hell out of Quantumania. pic.twitter.com/G4LT6L5mxm

— Jordan Blum (@BlumJordan) February 17, 2023

Another Twitter user by the name of @conquercomics shifted the conversation to another part of M.O.D.O.K., saying his “bare little butt” was the highlight of the film.

I can’t lie the highlight of Quantumania had to be MODOK’s bare little butt on my IMAX screen pic.twitter.com/1ZtvcMhpeC

— Block A the Conqueror ⏳ (@conquercomics) February 17, 2023

What did you think of M.O.D.O.K. in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? Let us know in the comments below!

For more, check out our Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania review, our explainer of the film’s ending and post-credits scenes, and our look at how Kang forces Ant-Man to grow up.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.